Global Surface Temperature Departures and ENSO Values

GLOBAL SURFACE TEMPERATURE DEPARTURES AND ENSO VALUES

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/201903/supplemental/page-3


Entire quote below found on URL above.

"Monthly temperature anomalies versus El Niño

The graphic below (above in this case, Ed.) depicts the monthly global temperature anomalies—that is, each month compared its 20th century average—since 1980, and the influence of the El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon.

The height of the bar represents the global temperature anomaly for the month. The color of the bar represents the ENSO status, as defined by the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI), which is the three-month average temperature anomaly in the Niño3.4 region centered on that month. Months colored in red had ONI values indicating an El Niño episode active (at least five consecutive months with the three-month Niño3.4 temperature more than 0.5°C (0.9°F) above the working "normal"). Blue represents La Niña episodes, more than 0.5°C (0.9°F) cooler than normal. Months in grey indicate ENSO-neutral conditions, when neither El Niño nor La Niña were present.

Several observations are apparent in the figure. First, nearly every month since 1980 has been above the 20th century average, and has generally warmed through the period. Second, El Niño-like conditions (those months in red) tend to be warmer than neighboring periods, and La Niña-like conditions (blue) tend to be cooler. Third, protracted El Niño-like episodes tend to warm through the event, while La Niña-like episodes tend to cool through the event. Fourth, and finally, there are exceptions to all of the above points."

Global Temperature Since the last Ice Age

Timeline

XKCD presents a timeline showing Earth's average temperature record for the last 22,000 years.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Sent from my iOS phone.

The President of the United States Behaves Like an Immature Insecure Teenager

Good grief. Greta Thunberg wins Time Magazine's person of the year honors and the President of the United States (POTUS) goes after a 16 year old girl!  Only a person who wanted to behave like an immature and insecure teenager would do something like that.

From Donald Trump's twitter account:
"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!"


""What kind of president bullies a teenager?" tweeted former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic contender, adding that Trump "could learn a few things from Greta on what it means to be a leader."

"Does the President really not have anything better to do today than attack a 16 year old?" tweeted Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Trump's tweet even came up at Thursday's House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against the president.""

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-mocks-greta-thunberg-after-she-wins-time-person-year-n1100531?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR3hjGHFSLBxDy6YjbajSfSr7HkeiYPeFzP42oDrLZikLkf56VMJfA2HWNw

They Knew This - When ?

In 1982 the scientists studying climate changes wrought by The Industrial Revolution predicted that by the year 2020 the CO2 levels would be between 410-420 ppm.  At the time the number was in the low 300s.

The scientists worked for Exxon and they knew that the climate was changing.
The paper detailing their findings can be found here CO2 Greenhouse Effect

[the original link has gone dead, but here the information is discussed: https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/time-to-wake-up-exxon-knew +

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01122015/documents-exxons-early-co2-position-senior-executives-engage-and-warming-forecast/ ]

Their science was remarkably accurate and yet for 27 years Exxon funded climate change deniers so that no industry crippling regulations could be enacted.  It was an act of desperate corporate survival. By succeeding in sowing seeds of doubt, they helped fuel the “climate change deniers” of today who ambush people with “fake science” or cherry picked data to further their agenda of preventing any significant cultural and economic changes.

History will measure and reveal the significance of this delay in action by humans to rectify a chemical imbalance in the atmosphere. This chemical imbalance causes “The Greenhouse Effect” and guarantees that once it reaches a certain level it will generate planet wide changes in Earth’s climate. Whether we can make a significant reduction in the growth of CO2, or not, there is no harm in making the attempt. The attempt being our only hope in preventing catastrophic changes in climate that will affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

One figure from the Exxon report made in 1982:

The curve to the left is the prediction of CO2 rise, the curve to the right is the increase of temperature that is expected to match that rise. Both curves are almost dead on accurate to the present measurements.

An animation of the Keeling Curve (measurements of CO2 for decades) demonstrates the yearly "breathing" of CO2 where it is high in one part of the year and lower during the next.  Yet, the trend line continues to climb, like a stairway to heaven, only this stairway may lead elsewhere.

The Keeling Curve animation

Some of the other conclusions in the animation include that scientific evidence that human beings have never experienced an Earth with this high of a concentration of CO2.

The Global Fever in September 2019

This is not a happy Earth.  It is a hot planet. These are the September 2019 temperature anomaly’s all over the globe. Depending on how your algorithms calculate Arctic temperatures this month was the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd hottest September in the last 150 years.

To read more about it and play with a plotter to display a map for any time period you may be interested in go to:
 https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/global/time-series/globe/land_ocean/1/9/1880-2019

To display global maps with the data superimposed you can travel here:
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/global/mapping

The Extinction Symbol

To read more about it:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_symbol

https://grist.org/article/the-story-behind-the-extinction-rebellion-symbol-at-climate-protests/

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/

Once you learn to read

I was attracted to this tile mosaic primarily because of the colors. The bright red, and deep blue invited me to come closer, to examine in detail what could only be seen in abstract from the street. Walking up the sidewalk the writing became apparent, then as I got closer it became legible.

                                "Once you learn to Read, you will Be forever free".

This motto made sense to me, yet it carries an implied caution. Learning to read is a ticket to a life time of possibilities that will not befall the non reader. However, learning to read is no guarantee that you will take the initiative to pursue those possibilities. Reading comes first, but one must couple the aspiration to the drive to achieve goals. One must study the roots of freedom to understand what it means to "...Be forever free."

Defying Gravity- Roger McGough.

Roger McGough's poem is deceptive, succinct, and to the point. One of the best poems on this subject I've ever read.


http://in-country-heaven.blogspot.com/2016/05/defying-gravity-roger-mcgough.html

The Greening of Financial Systems

The central banks and the financial structures they support are at risk when climate change is brought into the equation.  Here is what an umbrella organization of those central banks is saying .

https://www.banque-france.fr/en/financial-stability/international-role/network-greening-financial-system/press-events

Day One Entry: Mar 24, 2019

In honor of the 100th birthday of Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

When the wreaths of youth weighed heavily upon my form,
threatening to cast me down who knew where,
Lawrence,
like a Divine Wind
blew my wreaths away and
exploded my chains,
and taught me to sing out from my heart,
that deepest part that was hidden so deep,
Sing out the sky until I fall fast
Asleep.

63°F Partly Cloudy
953 Riverchase Pkwy W, Hoover, AL, United States

Sent from my iOS phone.

To Charity or Not to Charity

There are a lot of generous hearted folks who have used their FaceBook birthday celebration to offer you the opportunity for you to give to a charity of their choosing. Their motives seem pure, altruistic and very sweet. From conversations with several folks who do this it seems apparent that they mostly wanted to turn their birthday into something larger than themselves and wanted to “give back” to a community of deserving and needy folks.  This is a laudable perspective and a fresh reversal of a “me first” perspective touted in common culture.

Yet, there are reasons you might hesitate to support a charity with which you may be unfamiliar. Firstly, you may not have a lot of funds to toss around and are struggling to be frugal. Secondly, you may already have favorite charities to which you give money (or goods) every year.  Thirdly, it is possible that the charity is not a good steward of the funds received, and indeed, may run very close to being a fraudulent charity.

This essay will look at the third possibility and try to answer the questions about how to verify a charity, and determine its efficiency. Three organizations that have been involved with verifying, rating, and documenting charities are: Charity Navigator, CharityWatch, and GuideStar. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, and I’m not going to rate these organizations.  I’ve used one of these organizations for around 20 years.

One of the easiest ways to use these organizations to your advantage is to search on a charity that has caught your interest. If the charity has been in business for a while and been filing  F990’s for years then perhaps that charity has been rated. For example, Charity Navigator will only rate a charity that has filed 7 years of F990 forms.  For charities that have not been posting the F990 (required of tax exempt organizations) for years and years, then taking a peek at the F990 that did get filed can give you a window into how the charity is organized structurally and how they spend their money.

In this example of a less than exemplary charity I’m looking at a Native American charity. Before proceeding further I want to say there are some good charities doing excellent work for the Native American communities scattered around the country and I contribute to one of those. However, there are others that are rotten the core.

What criteria should be use to judge a charity? Well, each charity watch organization details the criteria they use and it is worth your time checking that out on their web page. One of the criteria mentioned by folks examining charities is monetary efficiency. That’s just my term for how much of the money taken in actually gets used for the intended recipients. Some writers have suggested that at least 75% of the money go to the recipients with the remaining 25% being allocated to marketing, salaries, infrastructure upkeep and the like. Some very efficient charities actually allocate over 90% of their funds directly to the people in need.

The Native American charity that I’m examining is not going to be named. However, the figures (rounded off) from its most recent F990 will be used.

This charity took $1,200,00 in charitable donations during the year 2016. Approximately half of that,  $620,000 went for marketing expenses paid to an LLC that is essentially one guy (named in other research) who lives and works from his home. An amount near $180,000 was spent on computer expenses and that money was sent to a condo in another state. There was one paid director who received a salary of about $60,000, and an additional $150,000 was spent for salaries and other related expenses.

If you are now wondering how much money is left over for the Native American recipients of the program money, you are not alone. Over one million dollars has been used for “expenses” all to provide just under $200,000 to the programs for the Native American recipients. This is not an efficient charity. Not only that, some might call it a fraudulent charity since it seems designed to provide two people with three fourths of the total funds for the charity.

For this reason I don’t ever contribute to a Charity that I’ve not researched. I recommend that if you are curious about your charity that you do a little detective work first. That kind of work can be quite interesting and a little fun.

Dreamtime

Upon awakening this morning these thoughts fell fully formed and flowing like a river.

I will tell you a puzzle. Perhaps it will be a puzzle of delight, one which unwinds its light as you wend you way wistfully through its maze. On the other hand the puzzle may be dimly perceived, perplexing, petulant.

The puzzle may morph a bit with time and effort, but that does not detract from the truths/frights within.

You see, for all of this time you have held a key unknowingly. This key would glitter in the sun and be rendered an object of curiosity , or other times it would lie unseen in a dark drawer.

Your life changes from day to day, from hour to hour and it is pivoting upon your thoughts, your judgements, your preferences, your disgusts. Every turn within your mind stream, conveys a new universe, each fork you choose propels one option closer to non existence and reinforces the other option.

You are the architect of all you survey, and the builder, and the inhabitant of your creation.  You make a world from which you cannot ever escape. Yet, the content and consequences in the world are completely within your power to control. 

Each time you entertain the thought (no matter whose voice is attached to the thought!) that you are suffering, or needy, or failing to achieve, you are laying down the cobblestones in a road on which you are walking.  Your paved path is easier to tread the next time and those thoughts will gain greater speed of transit. You  will have encouraged a habitual thought and made it easier for it to be re born and to carry you within its orbit. 

In a like manner if you carry thoughts of generosity, caring for others and entertaining a willingness to help others you lay down cobblestones to make this journey more predictable, more dependable. 

Each thought you embrace is like a candle. Sheltered from the errant  breeze it provides light for travelling the maze. Yet! There are times it would be better if you blew it out!

For an illumination easing ones path down the cobblestones of despair does you no good. In the dark you can find your way for you are the architect of all you survey. You can pivot on a dime  refuse the illumined path and stride forcefully through the dark toward another path, a better path, a brighter path. 

You can master the puzzle. You can choose the way of light, love, generosity, and peace and smooth over the cobblestones. As you return again and again to this path and bring more construction materials you can add streetlights, cafes, theaters, libraries, and most importantly friends who will be companions on your redemptive journey. Like the Phoenix you arise and fly again, simply because you choose another path.

Cats And Their Body Language

Don't you  wish you could understand what your cat is saying to you?  They are quite intelligent and they really know what they want. How can we eavesdrop into their thoughts and conversation, even if sometimes your cat seems to be talking to themselves?

Well, a true cat lover has posted some clues and based on my 30 year exposure to cats (of multiple breeds) he seems to have hit the nail on the head.

"The Body Language of Cats" is worth reading for entertainment and more importantly educational reasons. You will come to love and enjoy your four legged feline companion more when you are aware of how they are thinking both about the world around them and how they think about you!

SoundCloud post of On A Far Shore

Well this is another experiment in cross media sharing.  I'm going to try to share a SOUNDCLOUD link to a playlist that I created.  In fact all of the cuts on the playlist I created.  Some are ok, one or two might be better than that and several are average or below.  I've got to start somewhere though and here is where it is.

Monolith By the Sea

Test post using soundcloud...

https://soundcloud.com/user-662277008/monolith-by-the-sea

Ten Years After

Approximately ten years ago I commenced my first climate research. This has been spoken of earlier. My experience as an amateur weather enthusiast/observer/forecaster in no way prepared me for the complexities of trying to understand the climate.  That the climate was changing seemed to be intuitive, yet where were the measuring sticks?  What metrics were important to measure changes.

In July of 2008 Stefan Rahmstorf gave a presentation on some relevant datasets. He called it "The 5 Most Important Data Sets of Climate Science".  This past fall, a blog post on Open Mind, revisited those datasets and gave us an update.  You can see the post, graphs and all, here.

The most obvious conclusion to be drawn, whether or not you agree with the choice of these particular 5 datasets is that climate change has continued unabated, and that for the last 10 years the climate scientists nailed in in these 5 datasets. 

Giving

As a child, Christmas was a “magical” time, a time of mystery and dark, a time of expectation and celebration, a time of giving and receiving.

My parents really enjoyed Christmas and enjoyed the part they played for their children. As kids we were always excited with what we were going to receive, especially the surprises along the way. Yet, we were also taught, and learned to enjoy giving as well. The balance was always there. That balance is a gift I treasure to this day.

To Sequence or Not to Sequence, That is the Question

Last night I took the simplified sheet music for Silent Night over to the synthesizer and powered up the electronics.

First I sat at the midi controller and slowly keyed the notes on the keyboard. I’m not good at reading music and picking out notes,  but before long I’d memorized the first eight notes: G, A, G, E, repeated twice. 

By the way,  this is the C major version.  Then I played those measures a couple more times and darn if I hadn’t memorized it.  That is mind blowing, because I’m “not supposed” to be able to do that.  

Then I sat down with the ER-101 Quad Sequencer and started entering notes.  Two weeks ago I had created a “cheat sheet” for that sequencer showing all of the notes that it could produce (99 of them) and correlated that with an 88 key piano keyboard. Then I added the peculiar notation used by the sequencer and created a matrix with the addition of midi notes.  This “cheat sheet” gave me the confidence to add the first 14 notes of  Silent Night into the sequencer. So I pressed “run”, and I sort of recognized the melody.  There were a few mistakes,  notably (pardon the pun) notes entered in the wrong octave.  Then I played it again and realized I had not entered anything resembling duration.  You see, this song has dotted quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes and other expressions of musical time. 

Adding duration to the notes took twice as long as entering the notes themselves. I understood the relationships between the lengths of the different notes, but had to come up with a quantification of the ratios. This time when I pressed “run” it sounded much more like the hymn. 

I’m still not completely satisfied because I’m not sure my tempo is matching up with the 3/4 time signature. So, I’ll practice my best SWAG (sophisticated wild ass guess) on it and see where it takes me. 

Then, I need to add the remaining 33 notes to complete the song, and set up the correct duration, and perform SWAG  for some of the calculations. 

I am excited about pushing the envelope (pardon the synth pun) on the ER-101. This has come about by a decision made about six weeks ago to dig deep into the basics of what I have.  It involved patching the ultimate basic patch and putting out a YouTube video explaining the patch. Then I pulled aside one module and did an in-depth exploration of the module and put out a YouTube video explaining it.  These explorations are primarily for my sake. I’ve learned over the years that if I study something well enough to explain it then this crosses over into the realm of deeper learning. Preparing to teach something helps me learn it. 

Today I walked past the band stands of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.  They come to the cafeteria at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama one day a year to play two Christmas concerts.   In between the concerts I dropped by the cafeteria to get a sandwich. As I casually strolled past the double bass lying on the floor I glanced up at the music sheet on the stand. Hah! All of his music is in the bass clef, I never would have even known that two years ago. This journey has been so much fun.

Who knew about this visual illusion, the Shepard's Tables?

I recently came across the Shepard's Tables illusion and was completely flummoxed.  Those tables just "cannot" be the same size.  But they are :)

Check out this link:   http://www.psychologyconcepts.com/shepards-tables-illusion/












not my art..... it was borrowed from:
 http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/Shepard.shtml


Or how about The Dress?  This optical illusion is even more stunning because it is about Color!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress




It is still quite surprising that our perceptions can be “tricked” by reality!

Michael Was Worse Than I Thought

Hurricane Michael, while not directly causing a large number of fatalities, rearranged the landscape for tens of thousands of people and caused effects that will linger for many years.  The category 4 hurricane, which at landfall was only 2mph below category 5 status sent in a storm surge that nearly wiped Mexico Beach off the map. The barely weakening storm wrecked the east side of Panama City and roared north through rural Florida entering Georgia as a category 3 hurricane.  It appears that millions of trees, many of which were planted in pine forests to be harvested, were downed. People were being rescued from their homes for days after the passage of the massive storm.

In one place, that I first came to know and love in the 1990’s, the St. Joseph’s Peninsula, the geography was rearranged.  Hurricane Michael cut through the peninsula in two places, isolating the T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.  Satellite imagery released by NOAA on October 11, the day after the impact of hurricane Michael showed the Gulf of Mexico flowing through the channels cut in the land.

I have loved “The Emerald Coast” for my entire life, even when folks called it “The Redneck Rivera”. The kitschy outdoor games, the beautiful bay, the unparalleled Gulf of Mexico with its sugar sand beaches have been an enduring part of my life.

If you can, please contribute to a verified charity that will endeavor to reduce the suffering of the folks along hurricane Michael’s path of destruction. The citizens of the Emerald Coast and those living inland who are digging out of the destruction will be grateful.

I've Got a Bad Feeling About Michael

I've got a bad feeling about Michael.  This hurricane popped up from a tropical gumbo where it stewed for a few days without any defined characteristics. Then, BOOM, this hurricane forms and it is tracking toward our beloved Florida Gulf Coast. The amount of shear (not so much) and warm waters (quite a bit) and approaching cold front are forecast to move Michael to the Florida Gulf Coast in less than two days.  It might "bomb" and explode in intensity bringing it onshore as a Category 3 hurricane.

I don't normally blog about this sort of thing, but there is a feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that this might be the worst hurricane to hit Panama City in my lifetime. I really hope this is not the case.

Prayers, crossed fingers and hopes - "please, no!"

Stay tuned...

Who Knew About Auditory Illusions?

My friend O.Z. Hall passed this on the Birmingham Electronic Music group’s FaceBook page today. This is quite an intriguing experiment, one that you can do alone which will cause you no discomfort.



“While working on some deep learning related audio projects I came upon an interesting

auditory illusion that shows how our brain associates memorized phrases with auditory stimuli. Below is a sound generated by randomly stimulating a neural net that was pretrained on approximately 1000 recordings of brass sounds (both single notes and entire musical phrases). The resulting “drone” is totally uniform and has no temporal development at all (in the sense that there would be individual notes present in that mixture). If you first listen to the audio file it just sounds chaotic and maybe a bit disharmonic, nothing to see here, move along. But wait! Try running the file in the background for several minutes in a loop and you will notice that it appears as if there are suddenly notes, even entire melodies emerging from the mix. ” 1

http://blogs.zynaptiq.com/bernsee/evoked-melodies-in-auditory-illusion/



1. Quoted from his blog post: Stephan Bernsee’s Blog , August 31, 2018

Tonight’s Modular Synthesis Update

Well, this won’t be a daily feature but tonight there was some success in areas that needed it.

The DLD was patched to handle two Mother32s who were sequenced by the GRP R24.  Bingo! Each synth was running through a separate channel of delay simultaneously with its own custom delay time.  This not only worked beautifully but sounded great.

Later, using some radical off the wall patching the tELHARMONIC began to sing in a voice never heard before.  This patch will need documentation because most previous efforts to play this module ended in non excitement.

Lastly the TimeFactor was tested with each channel separately and it puts out beautiful delays as well. So it appears that four voices can be delayed separately.

The next goal will be to take existing stand alone VCOs and run them through one or the other of the delay paths.  The first test along this line using the ER-101 was not impressive. I’m sure that somewhere my technique went off the rails. 😀

The Weather So Far in 2018

It’s been a very busy year. One of the consequences of that busyness is that I’ve neglected to track the weather as close as I prefer. Tonight I ran through the F6 from the Birmingham National Weather Service (NWS) station.  The F6 is more widely known as the PRELIMINARY LOCAL CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA form.  The data in these forms are in all CAPS for some reason. One day I’ll look into why that is the case. Anyway, as I was saying, my investigations into the first nine months F6 forms and my comparison to the current Climate Normals yielded some interesting “headlines” for this years weather. 

First a small digression to provide a salient definition. “Climate Normals” are the current 30 year average of weather for each month of the year. The current Climate Normals are comprised of the averages from the years 1981-2010.  Every ten years the NWS puts out a new dataset. In the year 2021 they will deliver the next range of years for Climate Normals: 1991-2020. 

These Climate Normals are precisely what climate is: a thirty year average of thousands of weather measurements at the Birmingham NWS station. Every NWS station utilizes a set of data from which they derive their own Climata Normals. Using the Climate Normals and comparing them to our current year’s weather is the motivation behind this evening’s blog post. 

The first “headline” this data produces is: “The Month of February is Missing from Calendar Year 2018”.  Well, my calendar has February in it, and so does yours, so what does this headline mean? It’s actually quite simple. If you take the average highs and lows for this year’s February they are almost identical to the average highs and lows for the month of March found in the Climate Normals. This year’s weather just skipped the February temperatures and went from January to March temperatures.   And since this year’s March was just barely warmer then the March of the Climate Normals, this year we got double the fun!  Two month’s of March weather. 

The second “headline” this year is that the May-September period was hotter than the Climate Normals. This extended warm spell started out wet (6.98” in May) but ended up dryer than normal. July only saw 1.81” of rain at the bottom of the rain gauge. 

The third “headline” this year is that the weather in September was a clone of August.  So, this year we got two month’s of August weather, and that was following a July that was noticeably hotter than the Climate Normal.  As a matter of fact this year’s September was warmer than this year’s August! 

The fourth “headline” this year is a continuation of the last one.  “September is Hotter than the Normal July”.  Now everyone around here knows that July is the hottest month of the year. August is the second hottest month, followed by June. This year’s September’s temperatures were as hot as or hotter than the Climate Normal July. What we are saying here is that you could be more miserably 
hot this September than you could in the vast majority of the thirty year’s month of July (1981-2010).   Wow, that is hot!

The year is not over yet!  We just started the fourth quarter on October 1st so I’ll have to return to this topic in January for a look back at any future “headlines”. Until then, keep your eye on the sky. 

Celestial Cruze

I’m not sure why this last piece of music has entranced me.  It’s not the most beautiful, not the most danceable, not even the most ambient piece I’ve recorded.  It resonates with me on an existential level and repudiates my conscious efforts to produce anything along the lines of Berlin School space music. There are no atmospheric cloud banks of sequencers pulsating at different tempos and timbres. The soft and sweeping violin pads are not to be found in this sound scape.

This piece is in a unique way a piece of me.  The drones expanding and contracting interrupted after a length of time with struck notes sounding like a gigantic collection of piano strings connected to a steel I-beam. Sound, echo, and silence feature and fulminate in a sometimes turbid, other times timid embrace.

This piece is not recorded to any media other than video, and hence is both a live performance never to be repeated, and a recording that cannot be edited later to correct errors or oversights.

Living and breathing, sounding and resounding, starting and finishing. From the depths of deep dark notes to high pitched three to five octave leaps and sweeps, this piece moves slowly toward its denouement.

Celestial Cruze:

https://youtu.be/APwvIlXyf0g

The Seven Sisters in a Veil of Snow

This is how you know that you've waited too late to take a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I'm standing on the shore of Lake Tomahawk in Black Mountain, North Carolina looking north at the Seven Sisters mountain range. An early snow fall has covered the high elevations above 4,500' and rendered the parkway closed at that point. We were blessed with abundant sunshine in the valley below the peaks and even caught a rainbow on that chilly day in October 2017.

Arwen and her Pre Brush Communion

Arwen is by far and away the single most responsive cat we’ve had the pleasure of living with.  We’ve had a cat (only one at a time) for the past 37 years. The first two were Siamese, Arwen is mostly Maine Coon. She does not have papers to detail her bloodline, she was a rescue cat.  Her obvious and striking gratitude in being adopted was obvious from the first hour she connected with Debbie. The entire crowd in attendance (Debbie’s surprise birthday party) were amazed at how fast the two bonded.

Arwen has demonstrated to me, on hundreds of separate occasions that her command of the English language is far more sophisticated than expected. She picks up and responds to subtle conversations that Debbie and I have. Her daily expectation of her ritualistic grooming is delightful to see, and at times exasperating because typically my arrival from work coincides with her desire to receive the brush.  She knows she cannot get brushed until we “meet and greet”.  This ritual is played out every afternoon at some point in time between 4:30 and 5:30.  She awaits my movement to sit upon the ottoman. Once seated she comes up to me and rubs against my legs for dozens of times.  I’ll rub her as she passes by, or twirl her tail. She continues circling back in elaborate figure eights across the den floor and swipes both legs coming from the left. Then, in a mirror image of the previous maneuver she swipes from the right side. After some minutes of this slow motion activity she heads over toward the brush.

——- to be continued.

How Much Hotter is Your Hometown Today Compared to the Year of Your Birth?

The New York Times offers up a glimpse of how many of those 90 degree days we typically saw each year and how many we may expect to see over the next twenty or more years.


All you need to do is input the name of your home town and your year of birth. Note, the data set does not go back further than 1960, so those born earlier than then can use 1960.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/30/climate/how-much-hotter-is-your-hometown.html?emc=edit_nn_20180831&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=8099462420180831&te=1


I'm going to "cheat" and give you the results from my hometown, Birmingham, Alabama.  In 1960 the temperature hit 90 degrees an average of 56 days a year.  Then we went through the well known short period when the climate chilled a bit in the late 60's - the 1970's.  I remember those times as snowy in the winter too!  Today, in 2018 I can expect an average of 69 days above 90 and by the time I'm 80 years old that figure is expected to be approximately 84 days!

Why don't you pick your hometown and give it a whirl? 


                                                        -------------------------------------


The climate modeling was performed by Climate Impact Lab.
See the bottom of the web page for details on the numerical models used for this graphic display.

Cruising for breakfast

Arwen has food anxieties. No, she isn’t starving and her bowl of dried food is never empty. She just wants to insure that her human caretakers understand the importance of receiving canned food on time and served with a flourish. This morning she “got in my face”about it, albeit with the sweetest demeanor. Yes, she will receive her breakfast in about five minutes!

What’s Going On

Well, after a hiatus I’ve returned to my blog and hope to keep up some semblance of continuity. We’ll see if that pans out. In the meantime I’ll close today’s activities with a link to one of my recent Modular musical excursions.

Cumulous cloud Terrarium floating over Morpheus

Napping after book reviews

After those book reviews it is time to take a nap.

Vacation Books - Arwen's Recommendations

Vacation means many different things to different folks. One of the things I associate with a vacation is trying to pick up a “vacation book” to carry along and read when ever time and space allow. This past week I had two books to read. Both of which fit the “vacation book” criteria: not work related, not too intellectually taxing (no philosophy books), and interesting. Arwen has exactly the same criteria! She is sharing our vacation books with you. 

“Hope Never Dies” is a work of fiction (obviously), wherein Joe Biden and Barack Obama play the part of amateur detectives in unraveling the mysterious death of an Amtrak train conductor. This at times hilarious, and at times thought provoking novel is the work of author Andrew Shaffer, whose work “Fifty Shames of Earl Grey” established the author as a purveyor of malarkey! Arwen agrees that the book is pretty crazy at times but an entertaining and fast read. She recommends this book but refuses to give any plot secrets away. 

“The Stranger in the Woods” is the non fictional account of a man who walked into the woods of Maine and disappeared as a hermit for twenty seven years. Christopher Knight survived in the woods for almost three decades by ingenious survival techniques and by becoming an accomplished burglar. A lake community was terrified by the unknown and uncatchable thief who was highly selective in what he stole, and what he refused to steal. After being arrested his encounters in jail, court and with a community of people, and his difficulties in dealing with that transition are detailed in the book. The author also examines the life of hermits, and others who have walked away from mankind and dealt with solitude. 

Arwen likes this book because the hermit did not kill animals to stay alive. She recommends this book highly!

Snow again?

Well we had a beautiful snowfall in December here in Central Alabama and it appears we might get a small bit of snow tomorrow.


The above is a model depicting the forecast for noon on January 16, 2018. That is the 14:08 CST run of the WPC/NDFD model.



This is the official Birmingham, NWS timing map for tomorrow's freezing precipitation.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out!

Travelling To The Stars With Space Music - guided by Chuck Van Zyl

In a never ending attempt to "explore strange new worlds" the last year has found me exploring making music with a synthesizer.  It's been quite the challenge with a learning curve as steep as Everest.  As a long time lover of "Berlin School" space music my searches came across the music of Chuck Van Zyl. His extraordinary soaring timbres and clouds of rhythmic sequencing provide a fantastic modern exploration of that genre of  space music.  One of my favorite videos of his work is below.
I hope you enjoy!

The YouTube link is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoP5J_YpcwY

Hurricane Hunters follow a Pattern

#NOAA42 finishing 3rd and last pass through the eye of #HurricaneIrma collecting Doppler radar data for #HWRF. https://t.co/jwh0azKHML


Sent from my iOS phone.

My Year in the Premier League - In a Manner of Speaking - FA Cup

Part of the Story:

The FA CUP

Association Football (what we Americans call soccer) is so firmly entrenched in England (Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, and 7 dozen other countries) that it is part of the social fabric.  For example, during the month of March in the United States basketball fans are treated to March Madness with a bracket of 68 seeded teams who play each other to determine a winner.  This basketball frenzy sweeps the nation for several weeks and then it is over. 

The oldest association football competition in the world, the FA Cup, is an annual knockout competition in men's domestic English football. The competition is open to any eligible club down to Level 10 in the English Football Pyramid.   Each year the competition features over 600 teams with the first game in August and the FA Cup Final in the month of May. There is nothing closely resembling this competition in the US.  

Early in the competition, when lower ranked teams play teams that are much higher in the pyramid the possibility of "giant killings" is greatly exciting to the football public.  The fact that a poorly funded team that centers on a small village could play and beat (it has happened!) a top ranked Premier League team (a giant) is an unexpected delight to the competition.  

A Football Term Defined:

 Transfer Window - Tranfer Deadline Day

The transfer window is not some pane of glass on the back side of a transfer truck. No no no. The transfer window for the Premier League is twelve weeks of public speculation bordering on the side of insanity about which club is going to buy or sell which player. If you are a fan of a team then you can expect that the amount of discussion and speculation will rise and fall with the revolution of the earth.  Yes, after midnight it calms down and then picks up again about 6 am. However, since the earth is round, and at  every moment in time it is daylight somewhere, then the pace of the frantic speculation never really ceases.

There are two transfer windows in Premier League Football. A four week window in the middle of the winter (January) and the eight weeks comprising July and August. Today, the last day of August, is Transfer Deadline Day. In case you missed it, here is all of the activity during he Summer Transfer Window. 

Most importantly what on earth happened to Liverpool during the summer transfer? 

This article is part of a series where I discuss, define, experience and try to explain my passion for Premier League Soccer, primarily as it is expressed in my semi fanatical support for the best team in the world: LIVERPOOL FC .

Logo borrowed from:  http://www.lfchistory.net/Images/lfc/LIVE_5396.gif

January Tropical Cyclones in The Atlantic & Pacific. At The Same Time! - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal - AGU Blogosphere

http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2016/01/14/january-tropical-cyclone-in-the-atlantic-pacific-at-the-same-time/


Sent from my iOS phone.

Robinson Springs United Methodist Church - Millbrook, AL

Robinson Springs United Methodist Church in Millbrook Alabama, one of the oldest churches in Elmore County was built in 1848.  It is built in classic Greek Revival style which was very popular in the 1830s through the 1840s. The heart pine foundation is still solid and held in place by pegs. Amazingly there are several families worshiping at the church who are the eighth generation of their family to remain in this congregation. 

Miriam Sagan's Blog On the Forthcoming Book

https://miriamswell.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/rod-scott-on-the-churches-of-alabama/

Laughter

My father sleeps under the blue lagoon
dreaming sweetly of grassy days in
dappled sunlight,
cousins playing vibrantly around
the many ancient oaks,
hiding behind the trunks with
fierce intent....

Scream! Leap! Tackle!

The children lay rolling in
bales of laughter, caring
not for dirt stains, or
scuff marks,
only for
laughter.


Owl's Nest - Wildacres - NC - October 7, 2015.

Yale University Photo Archive Of The Depression Released

http://beautifuldecay.com/2015/10/14/yale-university-releases-170000-incredible-photos-great-depression/









Sent from my portable computer.

Appropriate Tools For Writing

Haiku 14

Haiku 14

Grey ghosts fly overhead
Together in a vee shape –
No honking today.

Sent from my iOS phone.

Explanation ....

I've been experimenting with updating this blog via email.

Here are a couple of the ways that do not work:

          1) The Day One app.    This is my favorite app for writing on the phone.  However, when                      you send a note via email it clutters the subject line with a title that is relevant to the
               date the Day One app sent the file.  Your note Title is missing.

          2)  Evernote.  This is my favorite app for organizing notes.  However, when you share via                      email the shared "Work Chat" becomes an icon to click, therefore you cannot update this
            blog in that manner.


The one thing I did learn was that when using standard email to update this blog the contents of the subject line become the title of the blog entry.  Perfect!

If I forget the subject line, the first line of the article becomes the title of the entry.  --- Not optimal!

NIGHTSIGHT

Nightsight

Cloud caressing towers create man

made canyons that drown in 

dusk induced darkness.

Vagrant wind glances down the dusty street

startles windows and slaps soiled

newspapers across yellow lines.

Humpbacked shadows flicker like

indecisive moths

circling unevenly spaced street lights.

Colorless cars evade airborne paper

skirting pools of halogen light

stirring the shadows into decisive action.

Harrowing loneliness radiates from my marrow

pervades thoughts of my tomorrow and

strangle my fears of yesterday.

Solitary vertigo overwhelms my sight,

diminishes my spirit and 

quenches the fires of the night.

Birmingham, AL - February 21, 1990

The evening view from my cubicle on the

13th floor. 

Pre Autumn Chill

Pre Autumn Chill

The bird calls echo through the tall wooden
columns, underneath the leafy cathedral
ceiling, among the randomly arrayed
understory comprised of brilliant foliage,
shrubs, rotted debris, and four legged
creatures scurrying about in search of
food.

The calliopeic warble of the different
Avian families rebound and re echo from
corners of the cathedral, a building with no
walls, a building with no windows, open to
atmospheric flights of aerial mastery,
and the approachment of Autumn.

A chilled sunrise in late August speaks
Autumnal murmurations at the
latitude of thirty three degrees above the
equator; bringing a loving reminder that
alas, awhile burning summer heat is not banished
from the Southern landscape,
—– it's days are numbered.


Elmore N. Scott, Jr. ©
  August 26, 2015 -
 , Hoover, AL, United States

Sent from my iOS phone.

The Worst Hard Time

An extraordinary book about America's greatest climate disaster. The Worst Hard Time tells the story of the people caught up in the circumstances that led to a greed fueled desire to get rich, at the expense of the greatest grasslands on the North American continent. As the disaster unfolded the reader is taken into the dust filled lives of the ordinary people who watched their land dry up and blo...w away. Who knew that at one point the dust made it all the way to New York City and Washington D.C. and blew more than 200 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean . By the end of the book you have met many memorable characters, historic people, and the ordinary people who had to decide whether to leave or stay as their soil, their farms and their towns blew away.

from: Rod Scott

Hi Nimrodscott



http://dealsonfitness.info/clearly.php?cover=kk9kgek58uvzw9bx





nimrodscott@yahoo.com
Nimrodscott

Sent from my iPhone

John Cook Makes a Great Point about Communication

Scientists are from Mars, Laypeople are
from Venus:
An Evidence-Based Rationale for
Communicating the Consensus on Climate
John Cook and Peter Jacobs


http://reports.ncse.com/index.php/rncse/article/view/347/599

97% - The Evidence has been conclusive for years

Relevance

Are monastics and hippies and poets relevant? No, we're deliberately irrelevant. We live with an ingrained irrelevance which is proper to every human being. The marginal person accepts the basic irrelevance of the human condition, an irrelevance which is manifested above all by the fact of death. The marginal person, the monastic, the displaced person, the prisoner, all these people live in the presence of death, which calls into question the meaning of life. They struggle with the fact of death in themselves, trying to seek something deeper than death, because there is something deeper than death, and the office of the monastic or the marginal person, the meditative person, is to go beyond death, even in this life to go beyond the dichotomy of life and death and to be, therefore, a witness to life.

- Thomas Merton, "Clouds and Water"

I've dreamed of this photo for about 15 years. During that time I've stood in this spot gazing to the west at this particular mountain range under a wide variety of light conditions. I've seen these mountains in morning light, sunset silhouette, broad daylight, wrapped in clouds, wreathed in clouds (as you see here) and under a cloudless sky.  

This photo contains the entire range of the Black Mountains in North Carolina. Actually, that is only partially true. What you see here is the highest peaks of the North-Central portion of the range. Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains is near the middle of the photo. 

What I love about this photo is that the air was clear, and that clouds were clustered around the range. The shadows cast by those clouds under strong sunshine add to the visual beauty of the lower slopes of The Blacks.  

Hopefully this will not be my last photo of this part of The Black Mountains. I'm looking forward to exploring this viewpoint in the near future.

One of my favorite places - The top of Mount Mitchell, NC

Orion Departs: Mar 14, 2013

Orion Departs

Orion slips to the West, tilting as
He removes himself from
easy view in the pre midnight
sky.

Mid March cold flows down the
yard like a sluggish river bereft
of water craft,
chilling unprotected ankles
freezing toes.

The Barred Owl announces
to the small four legged that their
days may be numbered,
nocturnal hunt will
commence again soon.

My breath floats out
Dissipates…
Moistens the chill night air,
while I think of one who
will no longer be among us
no longer concerned with
impoverished breath.

Rejoice!
Another Saint is admitted
into the Eternal Kingdom!

We are glad,
for he who is no longer among us
suffers no more;
we are sad for he is no
longer among us.

Orion has floated from view.
I stand up, cold stiffened joints
protest a sudden start.
Tomorrow we begin again.
We move toward
that long away day
that day of Reunion in a
Heavenly country.

Copyright
Rod Scott
March 14, 2013

46° Clear
953 Riverchase Pkwy W, Hoover, Alabama, United States

Sent from my portable computer. 

At Peace: Apr 7, 2013

At Peace

Spring rain washed pollen filled skies
Trees shimmering with yellow sunlight
Drip and drop tinged water from
Fresh bright green leaves
born last night under the
warm spring stars.

Pollen yellow fringed puddles
dapple dot the black asphalt
down the hillside
down the roadway,
mosaic of gold and black stretches
the entire length of the Parkway.

Inhaling deeply I Remember:
A warm Spring morning when
I am six years old riding in
the back seat with my
window wound low
an extended arm,
a tilting hand,
surfing the ocean of air
flowing past the car;
My parents are in the front seat;
I am safe
secure
happy in the moment,
not a care in the world.

Rod Scott
copyright 2013
First draft was April 1, 2013
8th version.

Hoover, Alabama

Sent from my portable computer. 

Avian Congress: Apr 11, 2014

Avian Congress

I espied eleven eagles in one glance
gyring over the mighty Tennessee;
A congress of avian might,
clouding above the horizon they
commanded all beneath their wings;

Lowly mortals consigned to speeding along the internet and four wheeled
gasoline powered vehicles have
no power over the Eagle.

Copyright Elmore N. "Rod" Scott, Jr.

 Florence, AL

 

DAWN SLIDES UP THE CURVE OF THE WORLD. Day One Entry: Oct 27, 2013

Dawn slides up the curve of the world
on noiseless clouds, punctured
by mountains that redirect the light,
bending the sight lines to the eye of
the beholder.

Time stops;
then the thrice crowing cock
echoes in the valley below,
sounding among the hills,
and frost crisped fields.

Hidden dark cerulean clouds are
illumined by splintered solar fire,
by solar storms from afar…

In a puff of time, the pre dawn sky,
Coyly yielding to the day,
Departs in a moment,
Exploding into the
dawn sky, the
New Day Sky.

Elmore N. "Rod" Scott, Jr. © 2013

35.0037° N, 84.0295° W

Sent from my mobile phone.

SHACKLEFORD POINT - FEBRUARY Day One Entry: Feb 15, 2014

Shackleford Point - February

In the blue light before dawn the pine needles shiver in the sub freezing air. The north wind causes the trees to sashay in circles while the remnants of last night's fire permeate the air. The animals that are awake at this hour move silently under the trees, their footfalls covered by the wind tossed forest. Deer, quietly nibbling tender branchlets, the fox blinking at the slow light in the East, swift motion beneath the feet of the trees betray the scurry of the chipmunk.

Time stands still as the entire world pauses on the cusp of a new dawn. Fresh breezes blow away the detritus of the previous night, causing fresh insight into the days ahead. For a moment I am young, and old, simultaneously. The juxtaposition is momentarily unnerving, then accepted as the Moment Itself. A Relationship as large as all outdoors kindles the last tendrils of sleep, and unifies all that stood in disarray.

I turn to the North, inhaling the keen breeze, letting it revivify every cell in my body. Singing and tingling with new life, filled with clarified purpose I return to the campfire to make coffee.

Sent from my mobile phone.

TWILIGHT --- Day One Entry: Mar 14, 2014

Twilight

The wind rises from the southwest
Causing tree branches to sway with leafless abandon;
The clapper caresses the tubes of the wind chime coaxing pure notes to ride the wind across the forest.

The Barred Owl hidden amongst the highest oak branches sings a nocturnal ditty, persuading a response from avian kinfolk.

Do they survey their territory and announce their boundaries in such a manner?
Or is this a call of Love wanted, or Lost?

The dusk spreads like a heavy woolen Pendelton blanket
smothering the wind and diminishing its power,
silencing the call and response of the owls,
muting,
the wind chime.

Rod Scott

Sent from my mobile phone.

Floating : Jun 1, 2014

Floating

Sometimes the body mind floats, on automatic pilot, with no direction, step by step, breath by breath, with no conscious effort or attention….just coasting, like a kick ball out of bounds heading down hill to the road below.

Sent from my mobile phone.

Musical Epiphany Day One Entry: Jul 30, 2014

Musical Epiphany

Sometimes while listening to favorite music, the kind of music that leads to the genesis of epiphany, a Higher and better Dimension peeks through the chords and speaks Wisdom to my Heart.

Sent from my mobile phone.

Day One Entry: Aug 20, 2014

Grief

"Grief is so individually expressed, so uniquely experienced, that we have no capacity to experience another's pain. Sadness rooted in painful memories, triggered by anniversaries, are reminders merely of the passage of time, not of ability or desire to cope with the pain. There is no balm that can be applied or received from afar that will magically assuage our grief, eliminate the pain, or speed up its passage. Grief lives like a tree, growing at its own pace, fruiting and leafing at its own pace until one day a branch rots and leaves drop. Then on another day, perhaps distant in time, or sooner than expected, another branch breaks. The tree has fewer branches, fewer leaves, less fruit. The tree still lives but in a diminished capacity, it no longer takes the same amount of time to rake up the leaves in Fall. Even if this tree were to fall over in a hurricane, the wood would still be on the ground. The rotten carcass of grief slowly absorbed into the dirt. It might take a lifetime for that grief to disappear, or it might take a little less."

Rod Scott

90° Mostly Sunny
1980 Parkway River Rd, Hoover, AL, United States

Sent from my mobile phone.

How we'll remember the 2014 World Cup - film from Birmingham, AL

http://www.cbssports.com/world-cup/eye-on-world-cup/24619997/the-milestone-past-milestones-how-the-2014-world-cup-will-be-remembered

Hard to believe that video was filmed in Birmingham, Alabama. We have come a long way!!!

Sent from my portable computer. 

Life Intervention

Three years ago the rapidly declining state of my father's health required that I spend increasing amounts of time managing his health and financial affairs. A series of unexpected health set backs, including his succombing to blindness necessitated major changes in his life.

He lived first in an Assisted Living Center, then a Nursing Home. Last year he died on March 12, 2013.  Much of my time since has been handling his financial affairs since that time.

These very important issues, an Intervention from "Life", have taken me through the valley and the shadow. My writing has continued but has not been seen on this blog.

Perhaps one day I'll play catch up...but for now this blog is getting very little attention.

I've very proud of my father. He was an amazing gentleman who was humble before his God, and gave generously of his time and his talent. I'm attaching some photos of him in his later years.

Hey Dad----you are gone but not forgotten. 

Love,
Rod

CENSORED NEWS: Chief Arvol Looking Horse's Message May 2013

CENSORED NEWS: Chief Arvol Looking Horse's Message May 2013

Indigenous leaders ask for prayer.....

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

I was unaware of this group until today.  It sounds (and reads) like they've been doing this work for quite a while.


"The Tree illustrates some of the contemplative practices currently in use in secular organizational and academic settings. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list. Below the Tree you will find links to descriptions of many of these practices as well as a more in-depth description of the Tree and image files for downloading."


http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/tree